I get it.

Mike Gold is the boss.

I entitled my return to ComicMix; “The Remix” thinking it was a devilishly clever way to return. Since I’ve been back I have not once seen that title grace this column.

So I get it, Mike Gold is the boss.

Wait a sec. Mike has a weekly blog on my website, michaeldavisworld.com (MDW). I wonder how he would feel if his next piece for MDW was under the title “Gold’s Balls” or “The Golden Balls’ or “The Golden Balls Forum?”

Don’t ask me why I feel the need to add “balls” to every title I come up with. It could be because I’m stir crazy! As of this writing, Saturday, evening August 27, I’m stuck in my electricity dead hotel room in Connecticut (CT) and I have no idea when I’ll be able to get back to L.A. because of hurricane Irene.

I once dated a girl named Irene. She was a bitch also.

So since it’s dark and there is no power in the hotel my choices are to read a book by flashlight, go to sleep or play or read with my iPad.

Or, I can just be alone with my thoughts.

Er…nope.

I do not like being along with my thoughts. Never have. I tend to go to real dark places when I’m alone with my thoughts. I am absolutely positive one of the reasons I’m a workaholic is because it gives me something to do so I am never alone with my thoughts.

I’m in CT for my cousin’s Nila’s wedding.  I love Nila from the bottom of my heart. She is the only reason I would have gotten on a plane (I H A T E T O F L Y ) and came to CT with the knowledge that Irene was on the way.  At the wedding, I gave a speech in which I spoke directly to Nila recounting our journey together as family and reminded her of some of our adventures together. She’s more like a little sister than a cousin and my trip down memory lane made us both cry.

When I said I cried what I meant is I…I…shit. You got me.

When I got back to my room after the reception I became a bit misty eyed again as I continued to recall the days when Nila was a little girl and I was still her cool cousin Michael. I decided that I would be alone with my thoughts this evening because my thoughts were filled with such happiness. Then I remembered I had a ComicMix piece do.

So here I sit typing my Remix…no, my Michael Davis ComicMix article at 2 in the morning wondering just what comic related memory could I write about that would continue my happy trip down memory lane.

Like a shot to the head it came to me.

DC Comics.

It’s no secret that I’m had a love and hate relationship with DC Comics. It’s also no secret that no matter the relationship I’ve been an unweaving fan of the DC comic book universe.

Given how things have been between DC and me you would think that I would have sworn off DC like Antony Weiner swore off tweeting.

It’s even more baffling when you consider that my very first comic book was Avengers # 43.  My second comic was Fantastic Four #73. I loved those books! They were great and I was a die-hard Marvel fan until my mother brought me home a Flash comic book. I don’t remember what issue it was but I was hooked like an addict on all things Flash. THEN I saw Superman #199 in which he raced The Flash!

Since then I’d been a solid. no joke. DC Comics fan. Don’t get me wrong, I love Marvel Comics. I still get goose bumps when I think of Silver Surfer #4 when he pimp slapped Thor or when the Hulk beat down of Sub-Mariner as drawn by Herb Trimpe.

I stopped reading comics for a long time. It was Frank Miller’s Daredevil that pulled me back in.

This is really strange. Marvel brought me in and Marvel brought me back when I left but DC remains my number one comic book universe.

I have no idea why it’s DC but I know that memory has something to do with it.

I could go on but my iPad is down to 50% and I don’t know when I’ll be able to charge it again and I simply cannot fall asleep without reading so I’m going to use some of that 50% to read some old silver age comics. I’ll read a few DC and a few Marvels.

Why?

Because that way I can be alone with my thoughts and memories and the hotel room will be the only dark place I visit tonight.

WEDNESDAY: Mike Gold 

IDW, who publishes several pulp and pulp-inspired books, won four Harvey Awards, presented at the 2011 Baltimore Comic Con.

From http://www.idwpublishing.com/:

IDW Publishing and its talented team of creators, editors and designers were honored with four prestigious Harvey Awards at the 2011 ceremony in Baltimore on Saturday, August 20th. IDW’s four wins ties as the most awards for any one publisher this year, and include two for famed creator, Darwyn Cooke.

Starting off IDW’s impressive roster of wins, Cooke was voted both “Best Artist” and “Best Cartoonist” for his much-lauded work, RICHARD STARK’S PARKER: THE OUTFIT, a sequel to the first book in this series, THE HUNTER. At Long Beach Comic-Con in October, IDW and Cooke will release RICHARD STARK’S PARKER: THE MARTINI EDITION, collecting the first two, award-winning books in the series, plus all-new material in an oversized volume.
 

IDW’s hugely popular DAVE STEVENS’ THE ROCKETEER: ARTIST’S EDITION also won two categories. This first Artist’s Edition in IDW’s rapidly growing series was voted “Best Domestic Reprint Project,” as well as honored with the “Special Award for Excellence in Presentation.” DAVE STEVENS’ THE ROCKETEER: ARTIST’S EDITION was designed by Randall Dahlk, and edited by IDW’s senior editor for special projects, Scott Dunbier, who edits all of the Artist’s Edition books. Currently, the series also includes WALTER SIMONSON’S THE MIGHTY THOR, which launched at San Diego Comic-Con. The Artist’s Edition series will expand impressively over the next year, with the release of WALLY WOOD’S EC STORIES in October, and JOHN ROMITA’S THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN in December. As announced at Comic-Con, IDW will also release WILL EISNER’S THE SPIRIT: ARTIST’S EDITION in 2012.

Conceived to “recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art,” voting in the Harvey Awards is open to all creative professionals in the comics industry. Nominees and winners for the Harvey Awards are both selected by comic book professionals.

For more information on IDW, please visit them online at http://www.idwpublishing.com/.

You can find a full list of winners at http://www.harveyawards.org/.

Read the full cartoon from Meredith Gran at Octopus Pie.

Quick highlights:

• Peter David rode out the storm on Long Island’s South Shore and live-blogged all of it. A number of creators are reporting in with various damage all over, from North Carolina to Connecticut, from power outages to floods to downed trees to wrecked homes.
• Tom Spurgeon reports on flooding at the Center For Cartoon Studies in White River, VT– the Schulz Library building looks to be a loss, but the books and art have been saved thanks to the efforts of volunteers.

As we all try to dry out, use the comments to check-in and report on how you’re doing.

Apparently, I can run for mayor of New York City because – to paraphrase Sarah Palin – I can see New York from my house.

I live in Bayonne, NJ, across the Hudson from the city, about two miles from Lower Manhattan as the crow flies, and on a good day, and if I judge the timing right, I can zip through the Holland Tunnel and be in the city proper in about fifteen minutes. (Then there’s rush hour L.)  Seriously, right now I’m looking out the window at New York Harbor, Staten Island and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (its proper name) are to my right. Directly across the water is Brooklyn – on a sunny clear day I can see the cars moving along the Belt Parkway without binoculars – and to my left is the Statue of Liberty and the skyline. I can even see the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and a hint of the Williamsburg Bridges. I can watch the Macy’s July 4^th fireworks from my roof.

I love my view. Like a cat, I like to sit and look out on the water and the harbor traffic and the constantly changing colors of the sky. Most of the time it’s glorious.

But sometimes, things happen. Like on September 11, 2001. For a week I kept the blinds down, because I couldn’t bear to see the smoking emptiness where the towers had stood. It only helped a little, especially at night, when the mega-million kilowatts of giant spotlights and the still-smoldering embers of death and destruction would break through the slats.

Like today, as the metropolitan New York area prepares for the arrival of Irene.

Yesterday I was one of the scoffers, as Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Christie, and other officials in New York and New Jersey announced mandatory evacuations and closings of the transit systems and roadways. (Governor Christie closed the Garden State Parkway heading south from exit 98 – which is the “entrance” to the Jersey Shore – as of 6 P.M. because he wanted to keep all lanes available for evacuation and emergency vehicles.) “Oh,” I said to anyone who would listen, “It’s the media. It’s a slow news cycle. Obama’s on vacation, Congress is in recess. And we’re coming up on an election year. Nobody, Democrat or Republican, wants to get caught with his or her pants down, like Brownie and Dubbya during Katrina. And anyway, the levees broke in New Orleans. Besides, hurricanes draw their strength from warm water. It may be summer, but the Atlantic up here is nowhere near as warm as it is down South or in the Caribbean.” And on and on I went.

I even got into a fight with my daughter, who lives in lower Jersey City, over evacuating. “Why are you gettin’ crazy?” I said when she said she wanted to come to my house last night, which was Friday. “It’s not even going to be here until Sunday morning.  Wait and see. The Giants haven’t cancelled the game against the Jets, they only moved it to start at 2 p.m. instead of 8. If they cancel the game, then it’s time to worry. It’s football. They never cancel games unless it’s a real emergency.”

The Giants-Jets game was cancelled Friday night.

Alixandra and Jeff are now in my living room. They came over last night. Well, Alix came over. Mandatory evacuation because of storm surge. Jeff, who was at Oberlin in Ohio being oriented as a new professor, had to drive all night to get here because not only was his flight cancelled, all area airports were closed. He wanted to be here before they possibly closed all roads in. Plus, they’re in love. If I lived a few blocks or a mile to the west or east, I’d be mandatory evacuated, too. I don’t have to worry about flooding, but will my windows hold up? What about the cell towers up on the roof of my building? What happens if they get blown over, will they coming crashing down through my ceiling? (I live on the top floor.) This morning I walked down the street to the supermarket because I didn’t have any teabags, and I love, no, I need, my tea in the morning. Do I have to tell you what a madhouse that was? The store was actually running out of food and water. Later I drove past my local gas station. Well, I inched past my gas station, because the gas-rationing days of 1979 were back, with twenty or more cars waiting in line at both entrances to fill their tanks. Mine was already filled.

Irene is coming. Storm clouds are gathering outside my window. It’s her. There’s a monsoon outside my window. Wait, it stopped. No, it started again. A warning. She is approaching. There was no breeze earlier. Now the leaves of the trees are rustling. Irene is near. I hear a police siren. And an ambulance.

My refrigerator is stocked. But what if the power goes out? Alix brought over shit none of us have eaten in years. Like Chef Boy-ar-dee. (Yum-Yum) I got Twinkies and Entenmanns’s and potato chips. Hey, they’re not called non-perishables for nothing.

Anyway, all this got me to thinking. If Thor was here, he could stop Irene – after all, he is the God of Thunder. All he’d have to do is swing Mjolnir around and poof! there goes Irene. Or if the Flash was around, he could run circles around Irene, break her up into little squalls. If Storm was in the area – wait, does she still live in Westchester? – she could simple command Irene to back off! Green Arrow and Hawkeye could launch some type of special chemical arrows that would cause Irene to collapse into herself. If Zatanna was here – !yawa og, enerI

Instead we sit here waiting. For the full force of Irene to strike.

Yeah, where’s Superman when you need him?

TUESDAY (Electric power willing): Michael Davis